My blood boils to the heat of ten thousand suns when I read that. As much as football is king and baseball has zero TV draw, baseball is still a huge gate draw because it is the most family friendly professional sport to watch in person. With nearly 15 million people in two states which comprise the most family friendly region in the country, it disgust me that this state has not been more aggressive in luring a major league baseball team. And it really, really, REALLY pisses me off that many cheer for that cesspool 4 hours away 6-7 months of the year as a result.

I can't pull up cbssports website at work, so I don't know if it's the same poll. However, if it's the same one I saw a few years ago, they actually asked those polled who their favorite team is in each sport and then they list the team with the highest total as that states favorite team, regardless of sport. In that poll the Panthers were by a wide margin the favorite NFL team of those in NC, but you still have the prideless Steelers, Cowboys, etc fans bringing the percentage down some. However, when asked about baseball, the Braves dominated because there is no local team, the Braves are still popular in the southeast from when they were the only team in the region, and fewer people care about baseball now. Therefore, the Braves percentage for favorite baseball team was higher than the Panthers percentage for favorite NFL team, so the Braves were listed as the states favorite pro sports team.